HOLLYWOOD HITS
Get ready for fall bounty of films!
Before we get to “A Star Is Born” (Oct. 5, WB), “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Nov. 2, Fox) and “First Man” (Oct. 12, Universal), three of the most anticipated fall film releases, let’s look at “The Predator.” Opening today from Fox, the sci-fi-action signature original film has already spun off two sequels and two “crossover” films, including the underrated Paul W.S. Anderson (“Resident Evil”) effort “AVP: Alien vs. Predator” (2004), featuring an under-sung Sanaa Lathan as the film’s unusual-for-the-time AfricanAmerican heroine.
“A Star Is Born” is a romantic musical drama and the third remake of the 1937 William A. Wellman original with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. The second remake co-starred Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. This new version features Bradley Cooper, who also directed and co-wrote the screenplay, and Lady Gaga, aka Stefani Germanotta, as starcrossed, musician lovers.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is the problemplagued Freddie Mercury and Queen band biopic with rising star Rami Malek (“Mr. Robot,” “Papillon”) as Mercury. The film, which co-stars Mike Myers and Lucy Boynton, was completed after the still-credited director Bryan Singer (“The Usual Suspects,” “X-Men”) left the project under a dark #MeToo movement cloud.
Also controversial is “First Man,” Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to his marvelous Academy Award-winning 2016 release, “La La Land.” The film tells the inspiring tale of the United States’ first moon landing in 1969 with Ryan Gosling as famed astronaut Neil Armstrong, and has gotten heat from some corners for foregoing the planting of the American flag scene, although the flag is visible in a few scenes. Claire Foy (“The Crown”) plays Neil’s wife, Janet. Will “First Man” join “The Right Stuff” (1983) and “Apollo 13” (1995) in the pantheon of greatest documentary-like films about American space exploration?
Other noteworthy films on the fall